One Way to Deal With Unscooped Poop: Paint it Green

An English town is so fed up with unscooped dog poop that it's resorting to a most unusual tactic: Spray-painting it bright green. The idea, according to a BBC article, is to shock owners into picking up the poop.

Poop on sidewalks will be scooped as soon as possible, but poop in grass will be painted. (Um, maybe a color other than bright green would provide a little more of a shocking contrast?) If it's still there after a week, town workers will clean it up.

Some on the Poole council think there may be better ways to deal with the errant poop. Opposition councilor Brian Clements declared that "it's a bizarre thing to do," according to the BBC.

"I think the people that are leaving the mess will be amused by these piles of bright green mess rather than put off by them," he said.

But environmental officers think it could be an effective way to get the message across. They recently had to deal with an alleyway covered with 200 piles of dog poop.

"We hope the paint will help highlight the size of the problem and change people's behavior," said Shaun Robson, head of environmental services. "We do our best to catch people but it is very difficult and we have to think of new ways, like this idea."

Walking away from the scene of a poop is punishable by a 50-pound fine, but that obviously hasn't deterred some poop scofflaws.

Dogsters, we've had many conversations about the issue of unscooped poop. Do you think painting it bright green will help? Before you answer, check out the video below, which features the work of a NY poop avenger who spray paints over sidewalk dog poop so it leaves a "scene-of-the-crime" silhouette. His or her efforts don't seem to have stopped the poopetrator. But they sure make for a colorful sidewalk.